Young Writers Society

Right back with another question. This one is rather serious, though.

In the story, one of the characters (Jane) is stabbed in the hip with a knife and left for dead. That's what I want to know about- how deep, and how much blood loss, is needed for the wound to be fatal. (She comes back from death- or the brink of death- but that's beside the point.)

I'd also like to know the best method for treating such a wound, so as to be accurate in my writing. Thank you.

Depends on the person, a woman at 110 pounds will have about 3.3 litres of blood or I guess about 5 pints. Of that you could stand to loose 2, at 1 pint you would get woozy, any more and you will probably black out if you had 5 pints.

There is no mark for how deep you have to go for it to be fatal, it depends on if you hit something, and the hip is really not a place you want to aim for if you want to kill someone, not really te best way to kill someone, if they are found they will live unless you put a big gaping hole in them. If you want something fatal, don't aim for the side of the hip, nobody even would try to stab there if they were attempting to kill someone.

Common points for a stab wound are the arms (because they put up their arms in defense), center of gut, left and right side of chest (many killers have no idea which side the heart is on and guess), and the face. If you stab someone in any of the points I listed, 3-5 inchs would be enough to kill.

The are several ways, but the best way to handle a stab wound in the short term if you are not in a hospital or have no hope of getting there on times is pressure (for limbs, on the torso this does not help much) or cauterizing (which stop its in a very painful but very effective way), which can be done quite easily with things people might have on hand.

Thank you. I'm guessing Jane isn't likely the throwing-her-arms up type; she's a gangster and trying to protect someone else. Namely, Mia.

True gangsters aren't all that bright, and are put in a atmosphere where they believe you can buy a life for 500 bucks. Self defense requires a will to live, and a brain to move. Which sadly such a environment does not give.

Hip actually contains the major artery to your leg that has a quarter of your total blood volume per leg, so it's a very good place to kill someone! Leg is also another good place for the same reason. You can bleed out very, very quickly if an artery's hit.

Really, it depends on what gets hit anywhere you get stabbed. Pulling the weapon out is the best way to insure bleeding out, because there's nothing stopping the blood at that point.

Look up circulatory shock to see how far you can push blood loss before it's fatal. It'd also be wise to look up locations of major arteries to find out where she'd need to be stabbed to bleed out.